]]>http://agiletactical.com/student-feedback-from-a-recent-class-2/feed/0Student feedback from a recent class….http://agiletactical.com/student-feedback-from-a-recent-class/
http://agiletactical.com/student-feedback-from-a-recent-class/#respondWed, 21 Nov 2018 13:33:47 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=722It’s always nice to get positive feedback from students after a class is complete. I asked for Donna’s permission to use her comments, from a email she sent me, in this post.

I have heard second hand that I can come off as a bit “intense” to new students who have not attended my classes.

Donna notes;

“Chuck,

I enjoyed your OC class with Annette. Your training was practical & valuable; good balance between classroom & hands-on. Thank you, especially, for making me feel comfortable, as I was probably the least experienced in the class (except for Annette’s cousin!) with this kind of training. I do enjoy competitive shooting; however I will turn my training toward practical self-defense & safety. It’s a journey.

Thanks again & all the best to you.

Donna Millan”

and in reply to my request to use her comments; “Chuck: please feel free to share! Intensity can be mistaken for being intimidating, but really—intensity is passion. And passion about teaching, sharing because you care is a good thing.”

]]>http://agiletactical.com/student-feedback-from-a-recent-class/feed/0Leadership, good observations from BBC (no, the other BBC…)http://agiletactical.com/leadership-good-observations-from-bbc-no-the-other-bbc/
http://agiletactical.com/leadership-good-observations-from-bbc-no-the-other-bbc/#respondMon, 15 Aug 2016 15:14:29 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=685Great job by the guys at Breach, Bang, Clear on the subject.

Lately, with various scandals and questionable shootings by several large PDs, and the noted jackassery on the national election front, it’s clear that folks in the USofA need to study up more on this subject…

]]>http://agiletactical.com/leadership-good-observations-from-bbc-no-the-other-bbc/feed/0This sort of thing is touching, and humbling………….http://agiletactical.com/this-sort-of-thing-is-touching-and-humbling/
http://agiletactical.com/this-sort-of-thing-is-touching-and-humbling/#respondMon, 14 Dec 2015 03:07:08 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=590I’m always a bit taken aback when I get this sort of feedback.

Pistol- Glock 34, Gen4 with Vickers slide stop and mag catch, AmeriGlo older gen Pro i-Dots w/ green tritium front with orange outline, and single dot dim yellow rear.
Holster- Custom Carry Concepts Shaggy, Rich modified my Gen3 holster to fit my Gen4 34s. Currently the new production models will all fit Gen4 34s, but he would be the POC to verify that.
Mag carriers- Blue Force Gear, belt mounted single pistol pouches, x2. First time I ran these. They redid the velcro attachment from their initial offering at SHOT and this iteration is much more stable.
Mags- Glock 17 rounders with orange baseplates, which is how I indicate my training mags
Ammo: American Eagle 147gr, AE9FP
Flashlight: SureFire E1B

Survey of Students:

A full class of 12 were signed up. Two couples were not able to make it, leaving 8 shooters on the line. There were no novices amongst the shooters. Age range was late 20s to 68. Two active LEOs, one a Sergeant at a local major university, the other out in Chuck’s old PD on the Gang squad. A few former Mil, the remainder were switched on citizens who carry. One is currently finishing his PhD in Engineering. So a very solid range of shooters who make the decision to carry and the effort to hone their pistol craft. The LEOs used their duty rigs, which were Safarilands on Bat belts, a few general behind-the-hip kydex options, and roughly half were carrying appendix. As far as I can recall, there was no leather asides from Chuck’s set up.

Training Day 1-

As stated above, after setting the class up on TD1 I had to jet to a visit to the doc and did not return until after lunch. The weather/temperature was the coldest it had been this year. Although BOB( the sun) did break through, he wasn’t juiced enough to make that much of a difference in the temperature. Generally, it stayed around the high 20s in the sun, with the wind cutting that down to the low 20s. I have never done any training on the civvie side in those conditions. Shooting from concealment, with all the clothing layers to defeat prior to a successful draw and presentation was something I had not done for that length of time before. I played the Smart Ranger and used my 215 Gear Handwarmer with a hand warmer dropped in it in-between shooting iterations. Clearly, I’m not going to be walking around the real world with a Multicam kangaroo pouch, but for the sake of the class that was my choice. Other shooters used gloves of varying thickness and warmth to combat the chill. Again, for purposes of the class I also left my shell jacket open, but kept my insulating jacket zipped up over my regular clothes. Those are the only shortcuts I took. One of the tangential discussions that came out of this, was Chuck mentioning the excellent utility of jacket pocket carrying a J-Frame or similar sized pistol during the cold season. The idea is by no means revolutionary, as I’m sure he and many others already carry a piece in such a manner during winter, but it got me thinking about the steps needed to take to make it a reality. The conversation direction was that the J-Frame would be in addition to, not instead of your main carry option.

I showed up after lunch and my tardiness guaranteed me the furthest left spot on the line, which in that case meant the least amount of sun, IE the berms were already blocking it out by the time I showed up. Forum member DEG had the extreme right position which enabled him the most amount of sun. The targets Chuck had set up on the line were the standard VTAC skeleton/vital areas. We were shooting for precision/accuracy on the chest box, keeping it to two round strings. Each string was from the draw. Chuck had the line at about 5-7 yards depending on the strength of the Coriolis effect. The speed of engagement was up to each student, with Chuck emphasizing that the hits on target would indicate if you could speed up, or should slow down. Chuck was very active in walking the line and getting a solid snap shot of each shooter, specifically tailoring his observational tidbits to them.

After the above drills, we began to prep for the low light and night shoot portion of the class. Chuck’s understanding of crawl-walk-run as not just some fancy range adage, but an actual process to be followed is noteworthy. As most students had either never shot a night fire portion, or had not shot one in quite some time, he took the time to start the process while we still had plenty of daylight. What I mean by this is that Chuck had the class start running familiarization drills and dry runs for the drills and iterations we would be shooting during the night. So out came the flash lights, and single-hand gun employment drills. The students running a WML were using their hand held lights as primaries. The class collectively voted to skip a hard break for dinner and go right into the night portion of the class. Given the early darkness and dropping temps, this was a very sensible decision. This also allowed for an earlier ENDEX time.

This was my second class with Chuck, and one of the things which struck me from the first one, is his vast knowledge and on-demand recall ability of real world stories about all things shootouts. This naturally applied to low light/no light as well. The first takeaway from those stories I can relate to from my Mil time, which is that the “never happen in a million years” scenarios do happen, and they happen a lot more frequently than a million years. The second I can also relate to very easily due to my past Force-on-Force training, is that you will get shot in/near the light, if you have it mounted on your gun. Chuck went over the pros and cons of carrying various lights, and demonstrated the merits or demerits of various employment methods. His bottom line as I understood it to be is that a WML has very limited benefits for a concealed carry application, but those are outweighed by the negatives. However, when put in the context of a dedicated night stand/home defense pistol/carbine, a WML truly comes into its own for the average armed citizen. Obviously, if you and all your buddies are jocked up taking down targets all night, then freedom on with your candela collection. My concealed set up does not have a WML, but I do have them on all my long guns.

The actual night time shooting was very illuminating for me, all pun intended. My previous night time training was not concealed carry/private citizen based, so this was most certainly a new angle for me. At 7 yards and in, what worked best for me was the very fast and still very accurate method of having the gun fully extended and shifting to a partially bladed forward stance, while bringing my flashlight to my cheek in order to PID the targets. Chuck had switched to these http://www.letargets.com/content/dt-…ersion-2-a.asp
targets for the night portion, in order to aid in the process of PID with our lights, followed by engagement or non-enagement of them.

After every shooter got plenty of reps in, Chuck very much left it to each of us as to how fast we wanted to push it. Which is another solid aspect of someone like Chuck. He can convey very clearly to the average listener, that the best and probably only times to push it until the wheels fall off, are in controlled training environments such as a class. Training evolutions SHOULD be purpose designed to continually expand a shooters comfort zone. The only way to do that is go beyond your previous limits/edges, whatever they may have been. Coming from a military background, this is very refreshing to see get freely passed on in an open enrollment setting. Although a concealed carry class, that training mindset is appropriate for any skill based setting.

We moved out to 10 and 15 yards after the close in stuff. Chuck had each student shoot the same drill with the same light employment technique as from the 7yd, in order for each shooter to see just what the effects were at distance. Personally, I slowed down noticeably and my shots still went outside the box, but not off the silhouette. The beam from my SF was plenty good and strong, so PID was not an issue. Some shooters were using small nuclear reactors disguised as flashlights, so that may have resulted in overall spillage across the line, but I do not have any issues with my E1B’s power or cone. After the light-to-cheek method was shot a few times at this distance, we switched to the Harries technique. This was a far more stable platform to shoot from, as you are now back to utilizing your support hand, well to support your strong hand. What I noticed was that I was slower to get it set up, and I needed to force myself to stay at extension of my gun arm. The reason I mention this is because Harries can become fairly fatiguing, fairly quickly, hence the human tendency to pull in the gun from full extension to half or even quarter extension. This is bad umkay, as you have now broken your overall grip and recoil management ability. So, personally I had to focus more so on staying at full extension than anything else during the set up. Once this was achieved, the actual shooting was very similar to a two handed feel, as well as very stable. Something I noticed myself doing was naturally going into an angled forward blade again. This was a natural bio-mechanic process for me, which I did not become fully aware of until a few iterations into the drills. It absolutely aided in keeping the gun at full extension, certainly helped in mitigating or at least staving off fatigue, and was also fast to set up. The benefits of the Harries stance were very apparent at this distance. You were trading speed for accuracy. By no means is it inherently slow, it is just slower than the cheek index. But that gap can be closed with good repetitions in training. Harries is inherently more accurate than the cheek index. My rounds were now back within the box and the ones that weren’t were at least no more than a finger or two off. In sum, each shooter was able to see what worked for them at the varying distance. I think we all agreed that the cheek index was faster and more useful the closer the engagement distance was, while Harries was the go to technique the further out we went. No shooter chose to stick with the cheek index at the 15 yard line. Some shooters chose to stick with Harries even as we migrated back to the 7 yard. Shooters preference alive and well. Chuck just made sure that we all knew the pros and cons, and how the theory worked out in practice for each shooter, at varying distances. And for those wondering, the moon was a Waxing Gibbous, and coupled with the range being decently far away from any major light pollution, it was fairly bright, but not nearly enough to actually be able to properly ID and engage the targets.

This was the end of TD1. Any errors or omissions are strictly mine and are not malicious in design.

I will tackle TD2 tomorrow and hopefully be able to tie it all into one post. Perhaps I will need the power of the great computer wizard Tom_Jones to accomplish this feat.

and;

Chuck Haggard Class Summary
I took a class from Chuck Haggard (http://agiletactical.com) last weekend, Nov 20-21. Two days and one night. It was an excellent class, and attended by a couple of other PF members as well. I thought it was an effective blend of shooting, instruction, and practical, data-driven drills. It was pretty cold on Saturday with lows around 25. So also a good opportunity to practice drawing and shooting from concealment in winter clothes and test some gear.

If you get a chance to train with Chuck, I highly recommend it.

I have a few high level notes posted below, but there was a lot more to the class than I have summarized. If anyone from the class happens to stumble across the summary, please feel free to add content, clarify, and improve.

Day 1

We started in the clubhouse for introductions and some background on the class. Each student provided an honest assessment of their training and background, which was helpful. Big focus on safety.

Chuck was clear to state that he was not locked into any particular doctrine, but rather a focus on data and drills proven to be effective in his experience.

On the range, we started with demonstrator guns and movement around obstacles, and appropriate use of the Sol position. An overview of the mechanics of the draw from strong side and appendix with concealment. (Four students, including me, were carrying appendix. That was nearly half of the class.) Trigger discipline, looking the gun into the holster after clearing concealed garments was also a focus.

Initial shooting was around five yards and focused on accuracy. Slide slingshot reloads were encouraged since they mirror a malfunction drill. Data indicates that you are as likely to clear a malfunction as you are to reload, so it was recommended that it be the same technique to keep it simple.

Preparation for night shooting in the late afternoon including strong hand drills with a flashlight. Modified FBI search technique and mag changes with flashlight. Night shooting included target discrimination (color and number, and no shoot). Also an opportunity to test the flash of various carry ammo without flashlight.

Day 1 stuff to remember: Great folks attending the class. The person next to me in line was a more experienced and better shooter, so that was also a big plus. He worked with Chuck for years and was able to further explain a few of the drills to me and offer some tips. Strong hand with flashlight techniques – my P30 felt big and heavy shooting one handed for an extended duration. Made me re-think choosing a larger gun for home defense vs carry, if searching a house one handed is a likely scenario. Moving out to 10 yards one handed with flashlight, cold, and a bit fatigued I was all over the target cranking the trigger low left. I’m going to work on this in future range sessions.

Day 2

We started with discussion and then shooting drills around 5 yards. Speed up and slow down drills, two to chest cavity, two to head, then two to chest again. Then we switched starting with slower precision shots, followed by faster chest shots. Goal was to know when to shoot a bit slower for precision, and when you could speed up (and how fast) to still make your hits.

We practiced several malfunction drills with dummy rounds, including FTF, double feeds, clearance strong hand only and support hand only. This was particularly good practice for me, since racking the slide off of the belt is not something I have worked on in the past.

We performed the 21 drill several times at 7 yards and 5 yards, then incorporated color and number drill distinction. Close quarters shooting from high 2 position with support arm protecting head.

Scenario discussion and practice with partners, including clearing friendlies out of the way of a shooting event while drawing one handed, stopping gun grabs strong side, support side, one handed and two handed, and striking at close distance with the top of slide. This deserved a good portion of time and practice.

We finished the day with ballistic gelatin tests with 357 mag HP through clothing compared to 9mm 124 +P Gold Dot, .40 Gold Dot, and 22 caliber. The 9mm GD penetrated the length of the gelatin, mushroomed perfectly and made it to the other end where it was stopped by the cover garment. The 357 mag stopped about 1/2 to 2/3 the way through, and the 22 tumbled at about half way. (There were a few really cool pictures we took and I’ll see if we can get them posted later.)

Day 2 stuff to remember: Protecting the gun needs practice or I’ll forget the drills. Malfunction drills should be incorporated into my range sessions, along with strong/support hand shooting and movement during the draw and reloads. A lot to practice and remember!

Again, there was much more content in the class than I have summarized. I finished the weekend worn out and happy; and a better shooter than when I started. Looking forward to getting him back for another class in the spring.

]]>http://agiletactical.com/student-aars-close-quarter-handgun-class-with-low-light-shooting-bonus-course-mill-creek-club-nov-21-22/feed/0Rangemaster Training event, KS, July 2016http://agiletactical.com/rangemaster-training-event-ks-july-2016/
http://agiletactical.com/rangemaster-training-event-ks-july-2016/#respondTue, 01 Dec 2015 16:08:50 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=584Peeps in KS and MO, Tom Givens is going to be local for his most excellent Rangemaster Three-Day Firearms Instructor Development Course, July 8-10, 2016. I can HIGHLY recommend this class. Plan ahead, and started saving your pennies.

]]>http://agiletactical.com/rangemaster-training-event-ks-july-2016/feed/0Student AAR, OC spray for the CCW person, McHenry Illhttp://agiletactical.com/student-aar-oc-spray-for-the-ccw-person-mchenry-ill/
http://agiletactical.com/student-aar-oc-spray-for-the-ccw-person-mchenry-ill/#respondMon, 19 Oct 2015 16:27:58 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=571I am posting this AAR by permission from the student, this was originally posted on the Lightfighter forum, http://www.lightfighter.net/topic/aar-agile-tactical-oc-pepper-spray-course-18sep2015-mchenry-il

I can highly recommend Lightfighter for any LEOs, military folks and other serious students of firearms and training, it’s one of the few sites on the internets that I frequent. Be advised, it is heavily moderated and stupid stuff is not tolerated.

On Sept 18, I attended Agile Tactical’s OC (pepper spray) course, held at the Alpha Range facility in McHenry, IL. I attended Chuck’s 1 day defensive handgun course late last month. In my AAR, I mentioned that he also held his OC course the night before. Had I known about it, I would have been there. Chuck, remembering this, PM’d me the day before the McHenry class to let me know. The stars aligned for me to get down to IL for an evening, so I took the opportunity.

Goals:
The key goals of the course are:
-To gain an understanding of how OC/chemical irritant spray works, to include aftercare
-To understand where the use of OC would properly fall into a personal defense system
-To separate facts from myths and marketing, so the consumer can make a good purchase
-To develop deployment tactics and threat resolution skills, scaling up and down from OC
The course puts this together in about 3 1/2 hours or so. It’s primarily geared towards non-LEO attendees, who have a choice of what product to carry, and who have little to no experience with OC. However, as an LEO, I found the course to be very informative, especially WRT the history of chemical irritants in LE, use of force articulation and understanding, more advanced deloyment considerations, and for the reps with inert training cans. Chuck makes a strong argument for adding OC to one’s defensive load out in both the plainclothes capacity as well as off duty.
Chuck’s LE experience, going back to the ’80s, makes him an ideal instructor. He has countless OC deployments, both in the street and in training. He has also been involved in training for almost as long, and has experience and exposure with several different companies’ products. He is articulate in his reasonings and rationale, presents well, and can back up his points and answer questions with both empirical knowledge and personal experience.

Class:
Chuck began with his introduction, and covered his plan for the class. He then dove into the material. Chuck had great handouts, in the form of PowerPoint printouts. While he didn’t use an actual Powerpoint (my understanding is that he does use it for this class), the lack of a screen did not detract from the course. The best kinds of PowerPoints are those that serve as as guide for the discussion, not the focus; Chuck accomplished this by adding in some personal experiences and historical notes on the subject where appropriate. Nicely done.
The classroom material hit on all the above points. Chuck broke down the history of chemical irritants, leading to where we are now with OC. He explained how OC works to disrupt an attacker, as well as how/when that mechanism might not be effective, and touched on aftercare and decon considerations. He also had a great breakdown of the various delivery methods (stream, foam, etc.) and their advantages and limitations.
The big moneymaker for the classroom portion was in Chuck’s explanation of how OC potency is calculated/marketed. This was very informative, and I was glad to see that the product that my agency uses rated high on Chuck’s list for effectiveness and quality control. Not surprisingly, much of what’s out there for information comes with a heavy dose of marketing. Thankfully, Chuck can cut through the crap. For a person purchasing OC on their own for personal defense or for a loved one, this is great information to have.
Class progressed into practical applications, done on site in one of Alpha’s ranges. Chuck started with the basics, like how to hold the can. We progressed into aiming and deploying, as well as exercises for escalating up to (and even beyond) OC. These exercises are in many ways very revealing to those who have not contemplated integrating defensive tools or concepts, and shows the need for more of this type of training, both for professionals as well as the armed public.
As with his pistol course, Chuck ended with discussion and practice of both disarming an attacker armed with OC, and retaining one’s OC against an attacker. Without going into details, his methods are simple, direct, and effective, thus easy to remember under stress.
Class wrapped up with a quick overview of what we learned, as well as the importance of keeping up with training.

Takeaways:
-Keep up with case law, use of force standards, and reporting. Look at past incidents to determine if OC could have been an effective option. Do this with an eye towards training for future similar scenarios, vs second guessing.
-Practice. As paltry as most LE inservice training is, firearms rightly gets a large share of what little time there is. However, DT is often neglected due to the specter of training injuries. Keep up with this, and include OC and other options. I need to get some training props.
-Experiment with integrating OC into off duty carry options, as well as plainclothes load outs. Work with training team to develop options and training on all facets of defensive tactics and firearms, geared towards plainclothes and off duty.

Sustain:
+Familiar with OC and its effects from prior training
+Can still aim and deploy the can effectively under stress
+Current on state statute and standards

Improve:
-Work on escalating from verbal control to less lethal means to lethal options (more full spectrum training)
-Identify off duty carry solution
-Acquire training props

Gear Shakedown:
This class was minimal on gear, and the training props were provided by Chuck. NO LIVE OC was used in this class, in case you were wondering.

Casual observation:
I’ve taken several shooting courses now, from a variety of instructors. I practice on my own, teach for my agency, and read up. I consider myself a decent shot and a good tactician. However, I haven’t taken as many non-shooting classes. For armed professionals among us, as well as the armed public, keeping up with combatives and less lethal skills, and training to transition between different options, is key. Not every problem has a ballistic solution; and even some of the ones that do or could, have to be solved at ranges that people seldom practice. At the same time, sometimes carrying a gun is just not going to happen. Traveling (esp. to areas with varying and draconian laws, e.g. NY/NJ, flying, etc), students on campus, the gym, and professions where carrying concealed would be verboten and difficult due to attire or work conditions, all can put a damper on the full load out we’d all like to carry. I wouldn’t forgo the gun; but I need to keep my non-gun skillset (and gear-set) up to par. For those who believe likewise, add Chuck to the list of trainers who excel at this.

Logistics:
As I mentioned above, this was a bit of a spur of the moment thing for me. I’m gracious that Chuck remembered me from the last class and thought to get a hold of me. I live just under 2 hours from McHenry, so the trip was pretty easy. The gear list is minimal; a training gun or knife is a nice thing to bring (I need to get a blue gun), but Chuck has everything you need, making things simpler.

The Alpha Range seemed nice. Indoors, 20 or so yards, and rifle rated. That’s pretty damn good for a range that’s inside the city limits. The facilities were in good shape, and the classroom was spacious enough. They also have at least 1 large TV for PowerPoints or training- a nice touch. Plenty of food choices nearby if attending a school there. Didn’t see a hotel, but I didn’t stray from the main drag. The class attendees (most of whose I ASSume are range members) were all friendly and accommodating. If I lived in northern IL, I’d give this place a look. Seeing that they host some training at their site, I’m sure I’ll be back someday.

Bottom Line:
So, great training with Chuck again. I’m glad to see more less lethal/combative training being offered, and I’m glad that someone with Chuck’s training and background is offering up the training. Combined with his pistol class, this is a great close quarters defensive training package. I highly courage you to check out his website and calendar:
www.agiletactical.com

]]>http://agiletactical.com/student-aar-oc-spray-for-the-ccw-person-mchenry-ill/feed/0Student AAR from the Racine County Line Close Quarter Handgun class, Aug 29thhttp://agiletactical.com/student-aar-from-the-racine-county-line-close-quarter-handgun-class-aug-29th/
http://agiletactical.com/student-aar-from-the-racine-county-line-close-quarter-handgun-class-aug-29th/#respondThu, 03 Sep 2015 14:47:04 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=566Posted with permission, AAR from a student that he is posting on the Lightfighter site;

On 8/29/15 I attended Agile Tactical’s Close Quarters Handgun, held at the Racine County Line Rifle Club. This was a one day course, focusing largely on pistol techniques, marksmanship, and manipulations at close range. The class listing identifies the main teaching points as:

“Issues with defensive use and deployment of handguns at close and very close ranges

-Considerations in drawing a handgun at contact and near contact ranges, entangled in-fight weapons access issues, and drawing/firing from non-standard positions

-Close quarters shooting,

-Weapon retention and disarming/deflection,

-Working around bystanders or family members in close quarters and the “down-range” problem,

-Wound ballistics and “Tactical Anatomy”,

-Malfunction clearances with one and two hands”

Class stuck pretty well to schedule, and we hit on each of these points. Other aspects of close- quarters gunfighting were added, as well.

Instructor:

Chuck Haggard, retired from the Topeka Police Department, was our instructor. Chuck needs no introduction from me; suffice to say that he’s seen a lot in his 28 year law enforcement career, he’s been recognized in state and federal court as an expert witness in use of force, and is a self described “training whore”. His experience alone speaks volumes; combined with his clear and concise reasoning behind his techniques and methodology, his arguments advocating or opposing existing TTPs are hard to ignore.

Class make up:

We had about 12 students on the line, the majority of which were LEOs, with some prior military thrown in. Everyone had at least some prior training or experience in competition. No one seemed to be in over their head. Accuracy standards were kept high and we all were for the most part holding up our end (more on this later). LFers Rick Finsta and Dusty Varmint were in attendance.

Training:

As with other AARs I’ve written, I won’t go into specific drills or TTPs learned. I consider them to be in many respects intellectual property of the trainer. I also wouldn’t want people to cheat themselves out of the course, the learning experience, or the instructor’s published material if applicable.

After introductions, Chuck explained his overall rationale and goals for the course. Bottom line is that several skills and TTPs aren’t practiced nearly as much as others, especially as one leaves the academy (in the LEO world). Three great examples are in-battery reloads (with and without retention), malfunction clearance, and firing from retention. In comparison to other important shooting/gunfighting skills, these don’t seem to receive as much training. Chuck worked us through several drills for tac reloads and Phase 1 and 2 malfunctions, as well as his philosophy on teaching and performing them. His methodology also aided in more realistic setups for each drill, which added value to the training, and gave me some ideas for making my own training more realistic and valuable. He outlined the 4 step draw stroke, noting that it allows firing from multiple points along the presentation, and stressed the importance of holstering slowly, especially if working from concealment.

Many of Chuck’s exercises involved working with a partner to setup or reset the drill, which aids in efficiency and allows for coaching, critiquing, and a little competition at times.

After lunch, the second half of class focused mostly on close quarters drills, such as developing shooting skills from retention/position 2, and shooting from position 3 into position 4. Chuck also had us work on this in pairs, using dummy guns, to get a better feel for when each position was appropriate. This, IME, is one of those initially trained then neglected skillsets.

Class also delved into some material concerning “the downrange problem”, i.e. moving a bystander/loved one/partner/unknown out of the line of fire in order to engage a threat. This was again a partner drill, and I had the pleasure of working with Rick Finsta again, as I had throughout the day. We also worked through some of Chuck’s material regarding weapon retention in and out of holster, weapon disarms, and ended with an intro to some combatives involving the handgun. Always good stuff to work on.

At this point, Chuck ended class with a review of the material presented, as well as our personal takeaways. Experiences were universally positive, and Chuck was frank about wanting constructive criticism. Following this, we packed up and departed.

Takeaways:

My marksmanship is pretty good, for being a bit out of practice. I seemed to be keeping up pretty well in the speed and accuracy department, though I need to work on slowing down my holstering, in order to ensure the trigger guard is clear or cover garments, strings, etc. Chuck had us mostly shoot the VTAC target, as he likes the IPSC/anatomy overlay, and feels that the placement of the “A” box, especially the upper half, and the credit card box in the face, are well placed and sized. The discussion about targets and tactical anatomy was great, and was reinforced by Chuck’s target selections and his accuracy standards.

Chuck’s arguments in support of using the support hand to rack the slide during reloads, as well as the 4 step draw stroke, are convincing. I went with Chuck’s methods for the class, and felt comfortable that my reloads speeds were still sufficient, yet the overhand technique was more “robust”, and maintained commonality with my dry fire and malfunction clearance manipulations. I’ll keep it in the toolbox. “Robust manipulation” was a common theme in this class.

This was also my first exposure to resetting the trigger under recoil (vs coming off recoil and resetting). I had not tried this until this class, and I found that it was fairly easy to pick up, and improved my follow up.

Chuck’s combatives, retention, and close quarters firing techniques are excellent. I especially liked his session on clearing the downrange problem. If I had to offer a constructive tweak to this class, it would be to make a second day out of the combatives and movement around partners portions. I can tell Chuck has a great deal of knowledge in this realm, and I’d love to delve deeper into that material.

Round count: 252. 300 advertised.

Sustain:

+accuracy

+draw stroke

+movement

Improve:

-trigger reset

-practice malfunction clears and in battery reloads

-firing from position 3/compressed 4

-Slow holstering

Gear Shakedown:

Glock 19 ran 100%. HD sights are great, and easy to pick up under speed. Ammo was Freedom Munitions 115 gr. remanufactured. Ammo was 100%; my only malfunctions were intentionally induced. I brought my M&P Shield as a backup, with the intent to run it a little, which never happened. Other students’ guns, mostly Glocks, seemed to be working fine. I saw one broken slide stop spring, for which Chuck had a spare. I used basic belt gear- Blade-tech holster, Raven double mag pouch, Maxpedition dump pouch. The dump pouch came in handy when working with dummy guns and dummy rounds. In retrospect, I should have worked with my Shield, or with my appendix holster for some of this class.

Class comments:

Chuck runs a tight ship. Breaks were effectively working breaks, stuffing mags and discussing the class material and relative real world incidents. He started class with the most in depth intro that I’ve heard. When each student recited their training and experience, Chuck took note and asked great questions about their experiences and histories. The medical/casualty plan was discussed, again in depth. Due to the range’s location, our host, Jerry, made it clear that whoever called 911 should ask for a specific ambulance service, who knew the location. Chuck also provided dummy guns and dummy ammunition for several evolutions. This is a huge help to students who either don’t have these items, or who would otherwise have to source them from their agency to attend.

Jerry also had 2 members of the club on hand to act as assistants. This made target posting and taping (“the Tape of Shame”), and brass call much easier. They were also on hand to open the range gate and direct us to the correct range, and they were also tasked with opening the gate and escorting the ambulance if needed. The range was clean, with a large table for our gear. We had a few Easy-ups set up, which helped with the light rain that we had in the morning.

Side note: Chuck also ran his well received OC class the previous evening. I got word of the evening class a couple days beforehand, so I couldn’t make it part of my itinerary. Next time…

Travel Notes:

Racine is easy to get to if you’re on or near the western shore of Lake Michigan, from Chicago up to Green Bay. I traveled light, and stayed for a night at a local hotel. Note to self: don’t pick the second cheapest hotel in Racine. I’m convinced that, while nothing happened while I was there, this place likely sees more than its fair share of calls for service from the local PD and FD. Dining options were either scarce or questionable by the time I was ready for dinner (8:30, after a run and a shower).

Summary:

Great class! I picked up a lot of helpful tips and techniques. Chuck is a great guy to learn from and listen to. His teaching style, combined with a solid amount of 1 on 1 instruction, ensured optimum material retention. As an LE trainer, he understands the dynamics involved in LE institutions and training. His experience has made him witness to the evolution and current state of firearms training, especially as it pertains to LE institutions. His insight into this alone is astounding. As noted above, I’d gladly pay extra for a second day focusing more on his movement drills, downrange problems, and retention/disarm material. Great job to our hosts as well; things ran smoothly, and the extra help was noticed and appreciated. I hope to see the club host more classes in the coming years, and I hope to see Chuck in the area again. Nice job!

]]>http://agiletactical.com/student-aar-from-the-racine-county-line-close-quarter-handgun-class-aug-29th/feed/0AAR, OC spray training and CQH at Racine County Line Rifle Club, Aug 28, 29, 30http://agiletactical.com/aar-oc-spray-training-and-cqh-at-racine-county-line-rifle-club-aug-28-29-30/
http://agiletactical.com/aar-oc-spray-training-and-cqh-at-racine-county-line-rifle-club-aug-28-29-30/#respondThu, 03 Sep 2015 13:20:08 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=563Details to follow……..
]]>http://agiletactical.com/aar-oc-spray-training-and-cqh-at-racine-county-line-rifle-club-aug-28-29-30/feed/0Just back from PEP3 andhttp://agiletactical.com/just-back-from-pep3-and/
http://agiletactical.com/just-back-from-pep3-and/#respondTue, 18 Aug 2015 16:19:49 +0000http://agiletactical.com/?p=553the attendees had a great time. Once again the event was awesome, if you weren’t there you missed a great training opportunity and a good time in general.